Blackhawks able to keep their young players in town

After a successful 2008-09 season, the Chicago Blackhawks primary goal for the off-season undoubtedly is too keep the core of their team together and to improve their roster with minor tweaks. More specifically, the Blackhawks finished 4^th in the Western Conference with a 46-24-12 record and subsequently made it all the way to the Conference Finals before being eliminated by Detroit in five games.

Thus, the franchise announced that they were able to re-sign five of their young players which sounds promising as most of them have yet to reach their full potential. Most importantly, they were able to extend Cam Barkers contract for another three years, costing them approximately $9 million. Barker has been a tough defender in the past and put up excellent numbers last year. In 2008-09 he scored 6 goals and dished out 34 assists for a total of 40 points in just 68 regular season games. During the Hawks impressive post-season run he added another 3 goals and 9 points to help them reach the Western Conference Finals.

Moreover, Chicago re-signed backup goaltender Corey Crawford and right wing forward Troy Brouwer, both players will receiver two year contracts. Although Crawford saw very few playing time last year, he is expected to become the Blackhawks’ starting goalie since Nikolai Khabibulin decided to sign a contract with the Edmonton Oilers last week. Brouwer on the other hand is coming off an excellent rookie season scoring 10 goals and adding 16 assists in his 69 NHL appearances. Likewise, he turned out to be a very physical player as he registered a total of 125 body checks last year. In addition to the aforementioned contract extensions, the Blackhawks also managed to sign the role players Ben Eager, Colin Fraser and Aaron Johnson for one more year.

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